Thank you, my friend. I quit
wearing that red suit a long time ago. It's been so good to be with
you again. Shelby and I cherish every opportunity to be here
in this place with you. Cherish you, your pastor's wife,
so very thankful God made you part of our lives. Thank you
for your hospitality. Thank you for your faithfulness
in proclaiming the gospel in this place. Turn with me, if
you will, to Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. Here the Spirit of God tells
us about a certain day during our Lord's earthly ministry when
a great number of people spent a good part of the day in the
presence of God's Son. People pressed to hear Him preach
the Word of God. And when the day was over, in
verse 26 we read, they were all amazed. And they glorified God and were
filled with fear. I think in this place, reverence. Let's read that again. I'm not going to compete with
the baby. Please take the baby out. They were all amazed and they
glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen
strange things today. Strange things. The only place
in this book where the word that is here translated strange things
is used, we would normally translate the word paradoxes. God's ways
are a paradox to the people of this world who know him not. They are strange in the eyes
of men, both religious men and irreligious men. They're a paradox. God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. You need not expect those who've
never experienced God's grace to understand God's grace. It's
not going to happen. You need not expect the lost,
unregenerate man or woman, whether you're related to them or not,
whether they were raised in church or not, whether they have been
taught truth or not, the lost and unregenerate do not understand
the things of God. They just don't understand. Except
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Our Lord said, blessed are your
eyes for they see. Only blessed eyes are seeing
eyes. I have a friend who spoke to
me just this week. His boy had surgery. I told you
about it earlier. The doctor said to him, said,
well, we know all things work together for good. And my friend
looked at him and said, yeah, for them that love God and are
called according to his purpose. And the poor doctor didn't have
a clue what he just said. Just looked at him like a cat
looking at a new gate. Like, what's that? The fact is, The natural man
has no understanding or appreciation of God's providence. For the
natural man, it must just simply be some kind of law of nature
that he can't figure out, or it must simply be fate or chance
or luck or something of the kind, but to suggest to the natural
man that God Almighty is on his throne. and rules all things
exactly as he will to the natural man is utterly ridiculous. We talk about substitution, oh,
how we love it, how we rejoice in the fact that God Almighty
saves us by the doing and dying of his darling son and that alone,
that God's son suffered all his wrath And because he suffered
all his wrath in our room instead, we go free and have no sin before
him. The natural man, that's foolishness
to him. It's foolishness to him. We declare
salvation by God's free grace and insist that salvation is
the gift of God, the work of God, that which no man cannot
contribute to, which no man can make any effort to accomplish,
that which God alone performs. And to the natural man, that's
just not right. That's just, it just stands for
reason that my work ought to count for something. That's the
way the natural man thinks. All things divinely revealed,
all things concerning God his character, his salvation, his
work in time and in eternity to the natural man are paradoxes,
confusing. These are strange things to those
who are strangers to grace. But the believer, to the believer, those things
that the world calls strange, we recognize as his mercies and
his wisdom and his goodness. Those who know the Lord have
seen and experienced many strange things, but they're such commonly
experienced things that being taught of God, we don't find
them strange at all. They're not strange at all. Let's look at this text first.
Here are some strange things that these people saw in that
day. They had seen a day of wonders,
so much so that they were amazed and said, we have seen strange
things today. Well, when I read that, I wanted
to go back and see what did they see. Look at verse 17. And it came to pass on a certain
day, As the Lord Jesus was teaching that there were Pharisees and
doctors of the law setting by which will come out of every
town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and the power of the
Lord was present to heal them. What a statement. The power of the Lord was present. by which these men could have
been healed. These Pharisees and Sadducees
and doctors of the law. The power of the Lord was present
to heal them. That power by which they could
have been healed. Even these men who came out for
no other reason except to find some accusation against him The
power of the Lord was present to heal them or why weren't they
healed? If you want to read the last
verse of Luke chapter 9 at your leisure, you'll find out why
in Luke chapter 9 and verse 11, I'm sorry the scripture says
that our Lord healed them and that had need of healing. If you leave here today without
His grace, I'll tell you why you do, because you don't need
it. If you leave here hungry, it's
because you had no hunger for Him. If you leave here without
His mercy, it's because you have no need of mercy. If you leave
here without his salvation, it's because you don't need it. He
won't perform it except where it's needed. He won't perform
it except where it is needed. So Brother Don, everybody needs
it. Ask them. Just ask them. A sinner is a
sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
Read on verse 18. And behold, men brought in a
bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they sought means
to bring him in and to lay him before him. And when they could
not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude,
They went upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling
with his couch into the midst before Jesus. Oh, here's a strange
thing. Here are four men acting in mighty
strong faith. I'd like to be like those four
men, wouldn't you? They were caring. They had great love and
pity for their sick friend, and they were thoughtful men. They
wanted to bring him to the Lord Jesus, and there was a great
multitude pressing around him, so they could not get their poor,
needy friend in the Master's presence. They knew that if they
could get him in the Master's presence, the Lord Jesus could
heal him of his disease. But there were multitudes around. They couldn't find a way. And
finally, one of them said to the other, said, let's take him
up on the roof. Let's take him up on the roof. I can picture
it in my mind's eye. They're in a large open area,
people crowded around, no way to get up to the place where
the Lord Jesus was. And so they said, let's go up
on the roof here and tear out some of the tiling and we can
drop him down right in front of the Lord. Well, boy, we wouldn't
want to disturb things like that. Go ahead and disturb it. It'll
be all right. They said, we'll let him down
in the master's presence. We tend to find every excuse
to prevent us from that which seems to be difficult with regard
to the gospel of God's grace and the ways of our God in dealing
with men. Do we not? Well, I don't know
whether I can do that or not. Well, there's so many obstacles
in the way. God give me grace to quit looking
at obstacles and look to him. If you have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, you look at that mountain and say, be removed
into the sea and walk right on by it. They said, let's find a way to
get this done. Let's find a way to get it done.
And they wouldn't be stopped until they got it done. Mark
tells us, In his account of this, when they could not come nigh
unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was,
and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed where on
the sick of palsy lay. And when the day was over, they
were successful. They got this man to the Savior.
Look at verse 20. Here's something else. They saw a man who was a sinner,
freely, completely forgiven of all sin by another man. When he saw their faith, he said
unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Now, these days, we have
lots of folks who are men who claim they have the ability to
absolve others of sin. Starting with that old fool in
Rome, looks like he's dressed up in a Masonic order costume,
fixing to go to a party. You will absolve your sins for
so much. But prior to our Lord's performing
this work, as far as I can find, there had never been a man in
history who claimed to have the authority on his own to forgive
sin. But here stood a man, a man who
is God Almighty, the Messiah, the King. of whom the prophet
spoke, who would come and proclaim, that is, proclaim it done, the
forgiveness of sin. He says to this man, thy sins
are forgiven thee. And when he did, the Pharisees
were enraged. The Greeks were astonished. And
the sinner who was forgiven leaped with joy. Listen to me now. This man, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, is still in the business of forgiving
sin freely and absolutely. Would you go home today forgiven, forgiven, so forgiven that you
can walk out of this place with assurance before God Almighty
that your sins will never be charged to you. So forgiven,
so thoroughly, completely, freely forgiven that you must do nothing
to have it and do nothing to keep it. Forgiven. Oh, Brother Don, I'd do anything.
Would you do nothing? Would you do nothing? Just trust
the Savior. Trust the Son of God. And all
who believe on Jesus Christ are forgiven of all sin. God is faithful and just to forgive
the sins of his people. the sins of every believer through
the blood of Christ. Believe him and you too shall
be forgiven. Hold your hands here in Luke
and turn back to Psalm 32. This is the language of scripture.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Here in Psalm 32, we have a psalm
written by God's servant, David, on the evening that Nathan the
prophet came to him. David had committed adultery
to cover his crime. had his faithful friend and servant
murdered and he kept it to himself until Nathan came to him and God stuck his finger right
in David's heart and he said, you're the man I'm talking about.
Thou art the man. And David's response was, I have
sinned. And the next word from God was,
the Lord hath put away thy sin. Not he's going to. He took care
of this before you ever committed the sin. The Lord hath put away
thy sin. And David went home and penned
this out. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. whose
sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Now watch this. When I kept silence,
when I refused to confess my sin, when I kept excusing my
sin, when I kept justifying my sin, when I kept silence, My
bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into
the drought of summer. And that word Selah, that's just
a long period. It means stop and roll this over
in your mind. Then we read in verse five, I
acknowledged my sin unto thee. Won't do you any good to acknowledge
it to me. I can't forgive your sin. And I don't need to hear
about it. And I don't want to hear about
it. And this church can't forgive
your sin. And if they want to hear about it, find some place
where they don't. It's exactly right. You don't
need to confess your sin here. Oh, no, no. Acknowledge your
sin to the God against whom you've sinned. Whole lot easier to do
business with Gene Harmon than it is with God Almighty, because
Gene Harmon is just like you. Acknowledge your sin to God Almighty.
When I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and my iniquity Have I
not hid? I quit covering up, I quit justifying. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord. And thou forgavest the iniquity
of my sin. Now roll that over in your heart.
The Son of God still forgives sin. God Almighty delights in
mercy. Oh, what a strange thing that
is to men who sense their guilt. What a strange thing that is
to men who cannot forgive sin. What a strange thing that is
to men who think it's impossible that God in His holiness can
forgive sin. They don't understand. The austere,
just, holy, true God who must punish sin is God who delights
in mercy. And because He delights in mercy,
He laid sin on His Son and punished His Son for sinners that He might
be just and forgive sinners of all their sins. Here's something
else, even stranger. Look at verse 20 again. their faith. What do you make of that? I'll
be honest with you, I don't know. I just don't know. But I'm not
going to make less of it than what I just read. When he saw
their faith, he said unto him, Thy sins are forgiven thee. Here
is a man who's forgiven of his sin because of faith the Son
of God saw in four other men. Is that what it says? Is that
what it says? Well, buddy, that doesn't fit
our box. Good. I'd like to knock the walls out
of your box. No, God Almighty doesn't forgive
sin by proxy. You can't believe him for somebody
else. But somehow, somehow, somehow I'm convinced that if I could just believe
God, I'd see him work wonders before me every day. wonders
of mercy and grace These men believed God and because they
believed God They did everything they could to get a man to the
master and when it got in there The Lord Jesus said I'll honor
that I'll honor that and the man walked away forgiven and
made whole look at verse 21 These men saw a display of our
Savior's Godhead, his omniscience. The scribes and Pharisees began
to reason, saying, who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who
can forgive sins but God? But when Jesus perceived their
thoughts, Before they could get their question
out, he answered it and said unto them, what reason ye in
your hearts? Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sin but God alone?
You question whether or not I'm God? You really still have that
in your mind? You really still question whether
or not this one whom you see perform such deeds as I have
performed? You really question whether or not I'm God? Well,
let me ask you something. Which do you reckon is easier,
to say to a man, your sins are forgiven, which nobody can see,
or to say to a man who is absolutely lame, get up and walk? Well, let me show you one more
time who I am. And he turned and looked at that man and said,
rise up and walk. This was but one of many incidental
displays of our Savior's Godhood. Nothing's hidden from him and
all power is his. And here again, Among the strange
things they saw, they saw a sick man, one who could lift neither
hand nor foot, made completely whole by the word of Christ. Verse 24. But that you may know
that the Son of Man has power upon earth to forgive sins, he
said unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise and take
up thy couch and go into thine house. And immediately he rose
up before them and took up that whereon he lay and departed to
his own house, glorifying God. Well, Brother Don knows we're
in old days. We don't believe in miracles
today. I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon. He still performs
miracles greater than these. Miracles of mercy. Hear Him,
ye deaf. His praise, ye dumb. Your loosened
tongues employ. Ye blind, behold, your Savior
come. And leap, ye lame, for joy. All right. Let me remind you
of some strange things revealed in the Gospel. Turn to John chapter
1. John says in the opening of the
chapter, ìIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.î It goes on and says all things were
made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.
Then in verse 14 we read, and the word was made flesh. The creator of men, God Almighty
became a man. He really became a man. But John
uses such a strong word here the strongest word he could possibly
have used. He says the word was made flesh.
That's something more than the word God the Son became a man. The word that is translated flesh
is the same word that's used in Romans chapter 3 when it speaks
of corrupt flesh. It is essentially the same as
the Hebrew word used in Genesis chapter 6 which speaks of corrupt
flesh. The word God, the eternal son,
God, who is life, was made mortal flesh, dying flesh. That's what he was made and dwelt
among us in flesh, dwelt among us as flesh. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us and we beheld his glory. You remember in the Old Testament,
rising up from the mercy seat was a light, the light that was
called the glory, the Shekinah, the glory of God. We beheld God's
glory in Him who was made flesh. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. God became a man and
this perfectly innocent, just, righteous man died as a vile
transgressor and a common criminal under the wrath of God Almighty
because he was made sin for us. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us. And there's just one reason why
he was made sin. Because this is the only way
we could be made the righteousness of God in him. He was made sin for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. When he was made
sin for us, his father forsook him. When He was made sin for
us, the Lord God cried, Awake, O sword, against the man, the
flesh that is my fellow. Smite and slay the shepherd.
In all the furious anger of His holy wrath, God Almighty slew
His Son because of His infinite love for us. herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. The just died in the place of
the unjust, that the unjust might be just. The innocent became
guilty, that the guilty might become innocent. The righteous
was made sin that the sinful might be made righteous. And
death is conquered by the death of the eternal God, our Savior. Truly, the strangest, most mysterious,
unexplainable thing in the world is the death of God's own Son
upon the cursed tree. Isaac Watts wrote, well might
the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when God
the mighty maker died for man the creature sin. There he hangs. Justly condemned. when he's made sin for us, praying
for sinners. Father, forgive them. Praying
for sinners that wanted him condemned. There he hangs, that one of whom
it is truly said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. There
he hangs. an innocent man on the cross
of a guilty man. And the guilty man, whose name
was Barabbas, goes scot-free. That's Christ, our substitute,
who died for you and me. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? And yet, nothing's still
a stranger than the choice of God's electing love. I've mentioned
it several times this week. Turn and look at it, 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. For you see your calling, brethren,
verse 26, having not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen. Yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in his presence, but of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. All right, let's take a third
look at this. We have seen strange things today. Let me put it to our own day. William Guthrie, I believe it
was, one of the old Puritans, went to visit a woman who was
dying in the community. And he preached the gospel to
her. And the woman joyfully believed it. And before Guthrie left her
home, she was gone. When he got home, this is what
he said to his wife and family. I have seen a strange thing today.
A woman whom I found in a state of nature, I saw in a state of
grace and left in a state of glory. Oh, that's wonderfully strange.
I have seen a self-condemned and helpless sinner completely
justified before God Almighty. And I am that sinner. The Lord God Almighty has completely
and freely justified me. He came to me Himself. and my soul was full of dreadful
despair because of sin and guilt. I feared his terrible righteousness,
his strict justice, and I knew he could save me or he could
damn me. And I knew that Christ died for
sinners and somehow, out of that confusion
and darkness, out of that heaviness upon my soul. Suddenly, by the gift of His
grace, I was able to do what I had been struggling, trying
to figure out a way to do for over a year. I trusted God's Son. Found myself believing Him. I
couldn't help it. I just couldn't help it. And
immediately looking to the Savior, the guilt and the sin were gone. He spoke peace to my soul. I
love the picture that Bunyan draws in Pilgrim's Progress,
a pilgrim when he at last makes his way up to Mount Calvary.
He went to Mount Sinai and found no relief, and he went to this
person and that and found no relief. Finally, the evangelist
told him to go down to Calvary. And he said he went to Calvary,
and as soon as he looked up and saw the Lamb of God dying on
the tree, he said, my burden fell off my back and rolled down
the hill and was lost in the sea forever. Oh, may God cause you now to
find yourself believing His Son. I have seen strange things. I've
seen stout-hearted rebels broken and their hearts renewed by God's
almighty grace. The disciples, when they saw
the rich young ruler, and his obstinate, haughty, arrogant
rebellion walk away, they said, who then can be saved? And the
Lord's response was, with men it's impossible, but with God,
all things are possible. I've seen some converted suddenly
and some after a long ordeal with conviction and struggling
and some have been rescued from a false hope and false religion
and others have heard the word and many years later have been
converted. But I've seen stout-hearted rebels
born of God. Years ago, I was preaching in
Houston, Texas. First time I'd been to Houston preaching. And
a fellow came with his wife and son. I don't know what I said. First night he was there, he
got mad at his hornets. He wanted to whip me. And he
said to his wife, I won't go back here that time anymore.
The next night, she persuaded him to come. He came, sat down
in the service. I hadn't done more. I started
preaching. He got red in the face and was mad that he stormed
out of the building and told his wife, I'll never go back
again. And for some reason, the third night he came back, but
he wouldn't come in. He stubbornly sat outside in
the vestibule just behind the door. I guess so I couldn't see
him. That night, God got him. Next night, he was there before
I was there. And he'd been worshiping with God since ever since. How do you manage that? I don't. God does. God does. I read years ago about an old
man who was converted as an old man in his 80s. And someone asked
him to what did he attribute his knowledge of the gospel of
God's grace. He said, when I was just a small
boy, my daddy took me to hear a fellow by the name of George
Whitfield preach the gospel and I've never forgotten what I heard. God does things his own way in
his own time. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit. I've seen a soul preserved in spiritual life
and faith by the grace of God amid many trials of great evil. Like that bush that Moses saw
that was not burnt, they appear to be burning bushes, always
burning, and never is the fiery trial able to consume them. While
others are taken away with most any little insignificant thing,
preserved for only one reason, they're in his grip. in the grip
of God's almighty grace. Years ago, I was selling shoes
when I was in college, and most of our trade were black
folks in downtown Winston-Salem. Had this old lady who came in,
and she would put some shoes on, lay away, pay a couple of
dollars a week on them, and I asked for her name. First time I recall,
Taking anything from her taking order from her and I was writing
that layaway receipt. She said grace grabs And I said what She said grace
grabs I Said ma'am. I don't know whether you know
that know this or not, but that's just what grace does She says
shall do, honey. Oh God's grace grabs the sinner
on the brink of hell and never, never, never lets go. It's called grace. I give to them eternal life and
they shall never perish. And I've seen evil turned to
good by the gracious hand of God's providence. Our brother just spoke to us
about such things, Joseph. His brothers hated him, sold
him into slavery. And he said to them, you bid
it for evil. God bid it for good. I'm in the place of God. Everything's
all right. They never could get hold of
that. They never could. When their daddy died, they still
thought Joseph was going to kill him. They couldn't get hold of
it. Joseph said, I'm in the place of God. Everything's all right. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
those three Hebrew men who faithfully worshiped God, were cast into
the burning fiery furnace. Oh, what a terrible, terrible
thing. It wasn't so bad. All that happened to them while
they were in the furnace was the cords that bound them were
burned up. And when they got out of the furnace, they didn't
even smell like they'd been in the smoking hall. Not a smell
of smoke on them. Nothing happened to them. They
were cast into the furnace and came out to bed. And so it always
is with God's people, always. Brother Jonah, swallowed by the
whale, cast into the depths of the sea. You don't really believe that,
do you? You don't really believe a whale swallowed Jonah. My friend,
Brother Donny Bell said, if the Bible said that Jonah swallowed
the whale, I'd believe it. How come? So Jonah could learn
the message to preach, salvations of the Lord. I've seen God in
my own life transform things just for me. I've seen him turn
things upside down just for me. I've seen him turn things upside
down just to open a door for the preaching of the gospel.
I've seen him perform wonders, strange things day after day
after day. God forgive me that I should
ever question him. Of a truth, his strength is made
perfect in weakness and his grace is sufficient for every day.
One more thing. Oh, what strange things we shall
see in the great eternal day yet to come. I'll tell you what
we're going to see in the day of judgment. We're going to see good, moral,
religious men and women whom we esteem and respected
as the salt of the earth, as we say down south. sentenced
to eternal damnation, while vile, wretched, harlots and sinners
enter into eternal glory by the merits of their crucified substitutes. God wouldn't send a good man
to hell. Hang on and you'll see. What you call a good man, every
one of them are going to hell. Every one of them. Strange things will be seen in
hell. Men and women will pray and beg
for mercy, and there'll be no mercy. Mothers will look at their damned daughters
and cuss them. And daughters will look at their
damned mothers and cuss them. And fathers look at their damned
sons and cuss them. And sons look at their damned
fathers in hell and cuss them. For there will be no kindness
and no love and no binding together, but only hatred, hatred, bitter
hatred, one for another for eternity. And men and women who hear forget. Some of you will go your way
today, and you will forget what you've heard these last three
days. You'll forget it because you want to. You'll forget it
because you'll try your best to. But in hell, you'll remember. Oh, you'll remember. You'll remember
every word, and it'll be a worm eating away at your soul that
will not die, a fire burning in your heart that cannot be
quenched. and you'll long to die and won't
be able to die. You'll hear the screams of men
crying like babies, but nobody will cry for them. The bodies
and souls and consciences of men will burn in pain and torment
and never cease from the sensitivity of the agony, the damned in hell. will cause no grief, however,
to the redeemed in glory. I know a good many folks in hell
today whom I love dearly on this earth, and I still have great
pain for them. But when God's done and makes
all things new, the grief will be gone and there will be no
pity, no pity. And strange things, oh, what
strange things we'll see in heaven. We will see Christ, the Lamb
crucified. in all His glory and behold Him
in His beauty as the King, our Redeemer. And we, who now counted our highest goal,
our greatest desire, to be like Him. Oh, imagine this. Don Fortner
will be an exact replica of Christ, my Redeemer, with whom I'm one. These bodies of ours transformed
into His glory, and all the redeemed will stand before Him spotless,
without without thought, without seeing, blameless before the
presence of His glory. More than that, God's elect, every one of them in all the
ages shall be with Him, their Redeemer. We will be one. Oh, we are one with him now,
but the experience of that oneness can hardly be called oneness,
can it? We are one in him now, but oh, how easily and how quickly
things divide us. God forgive us. There's a day
coming when God's elect shall be one. John Newton described
what I'm trying to tell you very well. He said, when I get to
heaven, there'll be three great wonders there. The first wonder
will be so many people there whom I didn't expect to see there.
And he said the second wonder is that there'll be so many people
who are not there that I fully expected to see there. But the
third and greatest wonder is that old John Newton, the old
slave trader, I myself will be there. Will you? Amen.